A lifelong dream to win the Melbourne Cup

The first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup delivered a blunt message after her triumph, telling the chauvinists in the sport to "get stuffed".

Michelle Payne wrote her name into the record books in one of the sporting moments of the year when she guided rank outsider Prince of Penzance across the line in the race that stops the nation.

It has been an incredible journey for the youngest member of a renowned racing family.

The dream started when Payne was still in school and confident that all roads would lead to Flemington.

"I dreamt about it from when I was five years old and there is an interview from my school friends, they were teasing me about, when I was about seven, and I said, 'I'm going to win the Melbourne Cup' and they always give me a bit of grief about it and I can't believe we've done it," Payne told Channel Seven after the race.

However it was not a career without its challenges.

Horrific injuries and being a woman in a male-dominated sport have made the 30-year-old work for every success she has earned.

Only three years ago it seemed the dream of a Melbourne Cup win was all but over as she lay in a hospital bed with a broken back.

It was Payne's 12th year in the saddle when her horse El Devine knuckled and threw her near the barriers at a Donald race meet.

The jockey was left with four cracked vertebra, broken ribs and a cracked collarbone.

But it was not the comeback from injury that Payne highlighted as her greatest challenge after crossing the line in first place.

It was competing as a woman in what Payne slammed as a "chauvinistic sport".

"I want to say to everyone else, get stuffed, because women can do anything and we can beat the world,” she said.

"I know some of the owners were keen to kick me off, and John Richards and Darren stuck strongly with me, and I put in all the effort I could and galloped him all I could because I thought he had what it takes to win the Melbourne Cup and I can't say how grateful I am to them.

"This is everybody's dream as a jockey in Australia and now probably the world."

Payne was keen to pay tribute to her horse for the incredible ride.

"When I wanted this horse as a three-year-old, he won here and I thought this is a Melbourne Cup horse and he just felt like he would run the two mile out that strong but far out, I didn't think he'd be that strong," she said.

"He was still towing me into the straight. He just burst to the front and he was powering through, it's just unbelievable."

And to cap off the remarkable win, her brother Stevie Payne was there watching every moment from the side lines.

Stevie, who has Down syndrome, worked as a strapper in the stables during preparation for the race.

After the win Stevie told the cameras: "Great win, great ride, ten out of ten".